la fiesta!

I just got back from the association. We had a youth valentine's party. There was about 20 youth that were there. It was a lot of fun. I was asked prior to share about "love" and what it means. This was my first time actually leading anything by myself with this group at the association.. but it went well.. i think! anyways. At the end i taught them a song in english. "People need the Lord." It was short, and it went along with what i talked about. i wrote out the words on a white board and taught it to them... they really enjoyed it..

here's a quick video of us singing some crazy song that i had no idea what it was about. All i know is that there was something about a crocodile in it!

one of my...

favorite songs:

Cerca de ti, yo quiero estar...

de tu presencia no me quiero alejar.

(close to you i want to be, i don't want to be far from your presence)

Feliz Dia de Amor y Amistad!

that's how you say Happy Valentine's Day here in ecuador... just wanted to say happy valentine's day to everyone! especially to someone very special... i miss you ginger!




thanks for another card!


maybe next year we can go here...?? yea?


i miss you...

formarse starts!

Hey guys. last night was the first night of formarse.. this is what we are calling our theology classes and english classes. (it's the spanish verb for "to form yourself"). we had a great turn out, about 50 people showed up! Last night was only informational, and this next week we will start classes. It was really good to be back at the association and see a lot of the youth. I hadn't seen most of them since before Christmas. Here are a couple of videos of us singing...



yesterday ronnie and I went down to the association to help set things up. But when we got there pretty much everything was done. So we were all just hanging out passing the time. A youth i know (Angie) was there playing the piano and I asked her what she was playing. Well, she quickly showed me a song that she loves to play, but can't sing it because it is in English. So this was a first for me... I helped her translate the song "Step by Step" from english to spanish. It was a little tough because i realized that for some of the lyrics in the song there were a few ways to say it in spanish. So i would tell her, "maybe this way...try it like this." Then she would sing it, and we would both figure out which way sounded the best/fit better with the music. It was a cool experience.

Anyways..all that to say.. while everyone was at formarse ronnie came up to me while we were all singing. He said, " hey, we're singing your song!" which what he meant was, we were about sing the song that i helped translate... so here it is. it sounded pretty rough because i think this is the first time probably everyone there had sang it or even heard it before...

otro corte de pelo...

i know most everyone doesn't care about this... but my mama does! hah...

almost...

a missed opportunity.

coming back from arizona for Christmas i had to fly to houston. From houston i flew 5 hours to quito. for some reason i wasn't that tired once the plane got in the air. (which i was really upset about bc i wanted the flight to go by fast). I was sitting in an aisle seat and there was a lady sitting in the same row by the window, with no one in between us. I usually don't talk to people on the planes... i like to sleep or just zone out and watch a movie.

So about an hour into the flight, i decided to get out my ipod (thanks gma) and my nintendo ds (thanks luke) and just waste time and try to get a few more stars on mario 64... i was getting a piece of gum out of my back pack, and i just felt something in me telling me that i needed to ask this lady, whom i haven't talked to yet, if she wanted a piece of gum. So i asked her if she wanted a piece of gum, expecting her to say yes or no, and then get back to my game and music.

well, little did i know but that little action of me asking her if she wanted some gum, opened her up and we talked for the rest of the flight. We talked for at least 3 hours or so about anything and everything. Her name was patricia and she was from colorado, but is now living in quito working with some sort of ngo type of company.

I was able to share with her the truth. We read the bible and talked about a lot of spiritual things. she had a lot of questions. it was a great conversation. i was able to tell her about what im doing here in ecuador, and my passion and my hope to reach the youth here for Christ.

Even though she didn't receive Christ, i knew it was a divine moment planned by God. I was able to plant the seed. It's funny.. i didn't even want to talk to her. i just wanted to sit there and zone out and pass the time with me ipod. And to think.. all it took was offering a total stranger a piece of gum. And to think..

it was almost a missed opportunity.

nanegelito...

Hey guys. I just got back from a team retreat. There are 3 other families that make up the team i am on.. Monday morning all of us went to a little area called Nanegelito, which is about an hour and a half north of quito. It is really the beginning of the rain forest.

It was a nice and relaxing time. We stayed at a place that is run by another missionary couple.. the couple was very nice. here is a quick video of what this place looked like.